learning goal: which one of these questions draws me in more than the others? why?
20-20-20
20 reading/reviewing last 500 lines
20 small-group discussion of the Kendrick questions
20 to compose email described below
In an email to bill.brown@hies org (subject line: “current thoughts about ANTIGONE”),
explain your current thinking about one or more of the questions below,
remembering that the email will be assessed for its clarity, specificity and development.
In other words, how clearly does it express its ideas and how well does it develop those ideas with specific references to lines of the text (with line numbers cited)
QUESTIONS (from Mr. Jerry Pendrick)
Most modern readers sympathize strongly with Antigone. In democratic Athens, how would the audience feel about Antigone — who is essentially a princess and daughter of the (former) king, a sort of Ivanka Trump figure, a member of the “1%” of Athenian society — asserting her right to disobey laws she happens to disagree with?
What exactly are Antigone’s motives for disobeying Creon’s edict? Are they religious, as her famous speech at lines 487-508 suggest? Or are they purely personal, as her speech at 987ff. suggests? Is she a consistent character who operates from consistent principles/motives?
The plot of the play proves that Creon was ultimately in the wrong. Does it also prove that Antigone was ultimately in the right? Why or why not? A related question is: what actually does it mean to be an Athenian tragedy?